BP #6

This article in the Wall Street Journal is about a long-term sexual assault case that has just come to light. It happened on the USA Gymnastics team, the culprit was their medical professional. Here they have a man who is supposed to be their caretaker and helper, who in reality is hurting them. This case was not even brought to light until 10 months after the initial allegations.

When a man overheard two gymnasts talking about what was going on in the doctor’s office, he brought it up to the coaches of the gymnastics team. They told the FBI that originally they were just going to handle to matter internally and not report it. In my opinion, they should have brought these allegations immediately to law enforcement. Sexual abuse has extremely negative, life-changing effects for females. Something this serious should not have been ignored.

The man who overheard the conversation did the right, moral, thing by telling the coaches. In class we talked about if people do the right thing because it is their “duty.” I think in this case it could have been both for this man. He could have actually cared about those girls, and cared that they were suffering. On the other hand, he could have told for the pure fact that he thought it was hit duty too.

USA Gymnastics has released statements that they are fully cooperating with the FBI. They said that at the time when the complaint was brought to their attention, they did not think it was serious enough to bring to law enforcement. Some higher up in Gymnastics clearly did not believe it was their duty to help these girls. Or, they just chose to hide it so that they did not have to deal with the backlash. Either way, it was unethical.